Equest Connect Clinic Level 2 - Horse Aware

This is a super fun
clinic using many different teaching methods and drawing on all of the rider’s
senses to give them a solid understanding of horse biomechanics, not
just from a theoretical point of view but from a ridden perspective. This
allows riders to know what they should be feeling if their horse is moving
correctly throughout its body and to identify when and where their horse may be
blocking its movement. This requires more than just a basic knowledge of the
footfalls of each gait, although this is an important starting point. Riders
should also know how, and which parts of the horse’s body is responsible for
what they feel, while at the same time begin to appreciate how parts of their
own bodies can hinder or positively influence/lead these movements. This paves
the way to the ultimate goal of riding with seemingly invisible aids and
changing from riding with very coarse, for want of a better word, peripheral
aids to more subtle, central/body/weight/ pelvic/core aids.

The
Horse Aware clinic begins with theory, before moving onto in-hand demonstrations
and lastly ridden sessions. It includes: 
– A lecture and fun exercises designed to help riders really understand horse
movement mechanics 
– An in-hand demonstration so riders can see
a) how much movement there is in various body parts of the horse and in
which planes, 
b) where
horses commonly tense, stiffen and block, 
c) what they,
as riders, are trying to absorb and 
d) how their bodies can alter their horses’ movement patterns
​-Ridden exercises to develop the all-important feel of the rider, linking what
they have learnt in the demonstrations to how they will use this knowledge for
their training in the future.